Lawyers representing opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) lawmakers Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole say they are being treated in remand prison as hardcore criminals and being denied visitors and food.
Sikhala, Sithole and 13 others, facing charges of inciting violence in Nyatsime following the gruesome death of CCC activist Moreblessing Ali, have been in remand prison for two months.
In a letter to the officer in charge of Chikurubi Maximum Prison, lawyers representing the two demanded that the prison should follow some provisions of the Constitution as Sikhala and Sithole are being ill-treated by prison officers.
“We are concerned by the treatment they continue to receive. To our dismay, we have established that the two, Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole are being subjected to inhumane treatment more specifically that they are being shackled in leg irons when they have to leave their holding cells to meet with visitors, including when they are meeting with their lawyers.
“These leg irons are as old as can be. Other them being too tight, since they appear to be one size fit all (despite that some inmates may have bigger legs) with a possibility of disrupting the smooth circulation of blood, they are also bruising the legs at point of contact, for our clients.”
The lawyers noted that the act of putting leg irons on “our clients is tantamount to inhumane treatment and degrading punishment or treatment is proscribed in the Constitution, that is very clear – section 53 thereof states that no one must be subjected to inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment.”
They also said Sikhala has advised them that he is not allowed to have some visitors, contrary to some provisions of the country’s supreme law.
“Regrettably, Job Sikhala’s rights are not being respected, more particularly in that, some of the visitors are being turned away when they bring him foo as they are advised that he has too much food.
“It is baffling that prison officers under your command are now multi-tasking as dieticians and or nutritionists who can determine the dietary requirements, more particularly the calorie intake one is required to observe. We seek clarity on whether the officers under your command, particularly those manning the visitors’ gate have relevant scientific training to determine when one has too much food.”
The lawyers further said they have established the two are detained in a prison section set for high-level criminals.
“… Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole are being detained in the ‘D’ section, which we are reliably informed, is the detention section for dangerous and convicted criminals. For all intents and purposes, the two have not been convicted of any crime and they have presumption of innocence in their favor which is a cardinal principle in our criminal justice system.
They demanded that their clients should be detained in conditions that don’t amount to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
“… This letter serves to remind you as we hereby do that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land (section 2) and that any practice, law or policy inconsistent with it is null and void. We now therefore write to demand that you accord our clients all their constitutional rights and freedoms as envisaged in the 2013 Constitution.”
Prison officials were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.
In a tweet, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, said, “… This is an obvious extension of the persecution against them for being Yellow!”
Responding to the tweet, Transform Zimbabwe leader, Jacob Ngarivhume, said, “I’ve called for a week of peaceful protest starting the week of August 22. It’s not about a political party or posturing. It is about Zimbabweans reasserting their rights guaranteed by the constitution.”
Responding to these remarks, one of the followers of Ngarivhume’s tweet, only identified as Pikoz, said, “You have called and Noone seems to have heeded your call Jacob, that is a sign, it should mean something. If you want solidarity, you don't call, you ask.”
Novelist, Tsitsi Dangarembga, noted that “this is an important point. I hope Jacob learns something useful from it. He has many good qualities, ideas and much gravitas. But all of that adds up to little if you cannot treat people in a way that makes people want to listen to you and take your advice.”